Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,36

a low voice as if not to disturb her, “She’s saying some verses of the Quran, our holy book, to protect you from envious eyes,” he explained. “She believes the girls and women in the kingdom will be jealous of your beauty and will envy you, so she’s protecting you from them, afraid something bad will happen to you.”

Oh! How nice of her!

“Something bad like what?”

“Sickness, troubles, sadness,” he shrugged.

“It’s really kind of her.”

“She likes you a lot,” he smiled, and I mirrored his smile.

When the prince’s grandmother was finished, she handed me another thin, square box that was a lot slimmer than the many boxes I’d gotten over the past couple of days. I opened it with another ‘thank you’.

Oh, my God!

I was so mesmerized by the sight in front of me that I didn’t pay attention to his granny as she spoke. What finally got my attention was the prince asking me if he could take the box.

I didn’t want to give it to him for some reason. I wanted to hug it and sleep beside it at night, but figured it’d make the prince wonder about my sanity. I didn’t want that, so–despite myself–I nodded.

He took the piece of wonderfulness out of the box and stood beside me. I knew immediately that he was going to put it on me, and it made me smile.

If I hadn’t seen the two white gold hairpins attached to the sides of the jewel, I would’ve mistaken it for a necklace. It was some sort of a crown, but it wasn’t the hard material kind that stood two feet above the head. No, it was soft and shaped like a bandanna, only it was decorated with white gold and diamonds all over it. When the prince put it above my head, a few parts of it dangled, resting on my forehead like gold-and-diamond bangs, and the rest of it rested above my hair and ended at the middle of my back.

I had diamond bangs on my forehead, people!

The prince secured it in place, taking his sweet time as he adjusted locks of my hair above the pins to cover them. I felt his knuckles touching the back of my neck softly as he dragged his right hand down it, sending shivers down my spine and more warmth to fill my heart.

I found myself wishing he wouldn’t move his hand away.

While still wearing my sort-of-crown, I only had soup for lunch: no salad, and none of the other delicious-looking food that was calling to me. Doctor’s orders. I couldn’t complain.

“Does it bother you when we speak in Arabic in your presence?” the prince asked out of nowhere.

I was taken aback by the fact that he noticed my annoyance with the subject, and I went with the truth. “A lot,” I nodded.

“I won’t do it again, and neither will Mona. I promise.”

I was grateful. Very grateful, to be honest. But I couldn’t believe he would be that–nice. Could he?

Games.

Traps.

I shrugged the voices in my head away, and politely thanked him, then took another spoonful of my soup as the prince ate whatever was on his plate.

A knock on the door echoed into the silence.

“Come in.” The prince smiled at me, earning a smile back.

If I didn’t already know that she was Mona at the door, I wouldn’t have recognized her. She had a black face cover on, I had no idea why. She was about to say something, but the prince interrupted her. “Speak only in English from now on in the princess’ presence, please,” he ordered gently.

“Yes, Prince Mazen,” Mona said. It made me smile. It had felt like I was in the dark, and someone finally turned on the light. The fact that I would now be able to understand what they said to each other and not just the words that were directed to me made me feel somewhat safer.

But my smile faded right away, and I wished she would’ve kept speaking in Arabic instead. Because, then, I would’ve never understood her next words, and it would’ve been a blessing.

“Mr. Yoseph wants to speak alone with Princess Marie.”

I swallowed thickly.

I wasn’t expecting that–at all. I hadn’t expected to see him again so soon. Upon reflection, I really hadn’t thought about seeing him again. Not like I thought I’d never see him ever again; I knew he was around somewhere, but I didn’t think about what would happen when we met.

And now that it had happened, and he wanted to meet